Large rolls of a magnetic media material, or webs, are mass punched to form diskette punched magnetic media which are commonly used in the computer industry. The magnetic media is punched in a circular shape, with a circular center piece also punched out. These disk media, commonly known as cookies in the industry, are then stacked for transport one on top of the other.
As the media corner of the punch press, they are stacked into round plastic containers or canisters. After the canisters are filled with approximately five hundred diskettes in a horizontal orientation, the canister is closed with a cover. A number of plastic canisters are stacked into larger, typically cardboard, shipping containers, and are then shipped to other assembly sites. The larger cardboard shipping containers containing a large number of media canisters are often quite heavy, and may be difficult for some people to pick up. The containers also generally do not have a handle. A significant amount of time is expended loading and unloading the numerous canisters from the shipping container, since each canister contains only about five hundred media. The canisters also do not generally have handles. Use of certain cardboard and plastic shipping containers produces much disposable waste, which adds to environmental problems.
At the assembly site, the cover is pried off of each of the canisters. A worker typically inverts the canister to remove the contents and places the media on a spindle. The worker then takes the media stacked on the spindle to the next processing step, such as burnishing.
There are several disadvantages to having the punched media stacked and shipped horizontally in the shipping containers as described above. The magnetic media material is very sensitive. A pressure applied to the top of the horizontal stack of punched media will cause a defect or debris to be transmitted through numerous layers of the media. This damages the media and may result in significant rejection rates of shipped media. For example, the pressure exerted against the media during shipping and removal of the media from the container may cause a defect to be transmitted to perhaps twenty or thirty of the diskettes in the stack. In addition, when the cover is removed from the plastic shipping container, the downward pressure during removal of the lid may also damage some of the media.
Debris, such as dust, on one of the diskettes may also cause damage when the vertical stacking weight of the media causes the debris to affect the closely packed surrounding media. Media also tends to move during shipping due to vibration, which causes damage to the media from abrasion. Media movement may also generate debris trails in the media surface that result in further defects.
Media are sometimes shipped in a compressed state in a packing arrangement known as a brick. The media are placed on a spindle, plates are positioned on either end of the spindle, and bolts are tightened against the plates to exert pressure on the media to form the brick. The pressure can damage the media, especially if debris is positioned against the media since the debris cannot be dislodged from the compressed media. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,955,471 and 4,883,178 illustrate this type of packing structure used for magnetic tapes. The brick packing arrangement is heavy because construction plates are bolted together by metal bolts. In addition, these bricks are more difficult, costly, and time consuming to use since the packing arrangement must be bolted together and then loosened when the media are to be used, which requires more labor.